caulfield12

I'll be the first of many to say this. WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE STARTED SANTIAGO TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for its product, is it ever justifiable for that business to blame the consumers for the non-performance of whatever product or service they are selling? The reason I bring this up is because I was wracking my brain for an example. It has been commonly accepted by many at different Sox websites that the team is justified in not spending money at the deadline or in the off-season (if the Sox will be spending more money than they've earned or are projected to earn...of course, we've never been privy to that actual information, other than making educated guesses from Forbes, comments made by the organization, etc.) Obviously, last year, the team was in first place and the moves for Youkilis, Liriano and Myers were logical and didn't cost a boatload of talent or money. But this season presents a different twist, and there are even more needs to make a legitimate argument about finishing with an 87-91 win team. Not only that, but we're in a quandary about long-term development vs. competing in the short term, and we're in a precarious position trading away what prospects we do have for the 10-15-20% chance of having a playoff team this year, albeit one with quite a few flaws. At any rate, I couldn't think of any business or product where the response of the market was "tepid" and the management/ownership group didn't change the people in charge of marketing that aforementioned product. The only examples I could think of were non-profits/NGO's/501-c-3's (obviously different than for-profits) who were all competing for donation dollars....and many go out of business or simply disappear. However, you can't "sell" a non-profit for $1 billion dollars or take out excess revenues from the budget for the Board of Directors without incurring legal and IRS penalties. So other than the White Sox, is there is any other business or product that we can name where the consumers (or fans) are blamed for the failure or shrinking revenues derived from that product? And where the marketing team in place hasn't been changed...perpetuating the notion that it's the consumers' (fans) fault and not the operational model of the business itself?

Lessons from today: Boy, Gattis (oh, to dream of two catchers like that) and Jose Bautista are good. And Joe Maddon's not infallible. Made the questionable decision not to have the 9th place hitter bunt to put the go-ahead run on for the lead-off hitter...whereas the Blue Jays used the 8th place hitter to sacrifice the runner over to 2nd for their 9th place hitter. Oh, and "bad" Fernando Rodney is still back. 9/13 in SVO. Finally, the Twins are fun bad X 2. Verlander six hits and a walk already surrendered in 1 2/3. 1.38 WHIP (the equivalent of Matt Thornton). Still clinging to a 2-2 tie with runners at 2nd and 3rd, 2 outs in the early going. This is as vulnerable as he has been in years...it happened a couple of times in 2012, but now, even more concerns are being raised.

Bring back Jon Garland, Brian Anderson and Kirk McCaskill. Need more "hunnies" in the stands.

Harrelson would probably pick Michael Young to come in and play 1B...once again, if Konerko acknowledges it's better for him not to play for an extended period and/or retire.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 22, 2013 -> 03:03 PM) Ryan Howard has 3.75 years and $100 million remaining on his contract. That's where the KW-ish Jim Thome "subsidized" deal would come in... Would the Phillies be willing to eat 50-60% of that contract to get it off the books? Would the White Sox be willing to invest that much money into a veteran hitter past his prime? Probably not. It did work out well with Thome...and there's obviously a need for impact hitters in our line-up, but that one's probably not the right move at this point unless Konerko just walked into Reinsdorf's office and retired.

Needed more Uhuru and Scotty.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/stating-obvio...-185800682.html Picking up Utley, Howard (if Konerko can't ever come back to form) or Ruiz would all be typical KW mid-season moves in a year when they're in the race and within hailing distance of first. All World Series champions/veterans. Utley wouldn't be needed if Beckham can hit at least 650 or 675 OPS-wise, but who ever knows how he'll do from one year to the next?

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ May 22, 2013 -> 02:40 PM) the starting pitching is awful (outside of Diamond). Thus, the bullpen has been overworked. after the game, Worley got sent to Rochester. Samuel Deduno gets a crack at the rotation. What's the current thinking on the team? The decent start was giving false hope? That they're returning to what was expected? What about Ryan's performance, trying to undo the damage of the Bill Smith years? What's the patience level? Obviously, Aaron Hicks is the player to be most concerned about, in terms of how long they keep him at the major league level. How are the youngsters like Sano and Buxton doing? Gibson? Their other top pitching prospect?

http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/...extbeginIndex=6 Still 30% chance of rain at game time. Rising to 40-50% over the rest of the evening.

Twins sporting just an awful line-up without Mauer against the Braves as they're threatening to fall further back in the standings.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 22, 2013 -> 09:23 AM) The bolded... what does that even mean? How many pitchers have MANY swing and miss pitches, taking away their "good stuff"? I was trying to be kind. I should have said, when he had a consistent low 90's fastball, he still had a tendency to struggle with putting batters away (just like Quintana in much of the 2nd half last year) post 2008/2009. Not great stuff, like Sale or Floyd/Javy on a good day, but "very good" stuff. Now, post-surgery, he doesn't have that. Which means he needs to have pinpoint command/control. Yet even Danks has acknowledged he's still struggling with that issue in the minors.

And that was the John Danks who threw 89-93/94 MPH with his fastball and had a 10 MPH differential on his FB/change. Hector Santiago last July....three appearances with between 45-57 pitches thrown Hector Santiago last August....four total appearances for the entire month, two of them for 73 and 76 pitches Hector Santiago last September/Oct...in his four starts 7 IP=108 pitches 5 IP=91 pitches 4 IP=93 pitches 3 1/3=78 pitches I don't think it's fair to say that Santiago is less likely than Axelrod or post-injury Danks to go at least 6 innings on average unless he has another month or two of starting under his belt. As it seems like there was a progression of building up his stamina after wasting away on the bench for almost all of 3 months last year (when he could have been starting for Charlotte)...

QUOTE (Disco72 @ May 22, 2013 -> 07:50 AM) You cannot do it for very long, especially if the non-Crain and non-Reed bullpen options fail to step it up, but I wouldn't mind seeing a series of skipped starts for the guys that went well over their prior innings last season. I suspect this is what they are doing with Sale, and I would prefer to see the Sox buy some time to find out if Danks can be effective. The other issue not discussed is if the Sox are deliberately handling Santiago this way, not because they 'hate him,' but because they are trying to develop him. To me, it's clear that Santiago's stuff is better than Axe's, but I'm not sure he's a better pitcher yet. In either case, Santiago needs to keep getting enough innings this season to be a full-time starter next season. Let's not forget another elephant in the room. John Danks, other than 2008, has never been known for being particularly efficient or having low pitch counts. Take away his good stuff, he doesn't have many "swing and miss" pitches. It's like the rap last year from scouts against Quintana...where they felt he would struggle the most, not having a dominating strikeout pitch. So you have an ouchy Sale again, Peavy, who you wonder how long he can continue to be the workhorse after fading down the stretch in 2012, Quintana/Danks/Santiago/Danks all with major question marks about how often they can give you much more than 5+ innings. I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't experiment with the six man rotation again...before they send Santiago down to start in AAA and leave Axelrod up.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 22, 2013 -> 07:53 AM) Thanks Rush. More quality analysis If you're going to accuse me of racism, you better have something a LOT better than that to back it up with.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 22, 2013 -> 08:53 AM) Because when RGIII an EJ Manuel were drafted, all I heard was "AIN'T NO BLACK QUARTERBACK EVER WON A SUPERBOWL NEVER" 1979-1947=32 years Heck, 1979-1936 (Jesse Owens)=43 years Or Joe Louis, Tiger Woods, etc.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 22, 2013 -> 07:53 AM) Thanks Rush. More quality analysis You're welcome. Have you ever met any major league scouts in their 50's, 60's or 70's? Just curious. Because last time I checked, Doug Williams started playing in the 1970's. Here we are, 30+ years later, and the same questions are being raised by scouts across the board about African-American NFL quarterbacks. If you want to believe there's no bias, racism or prejudice that's still prevalent, then be my guest. I lived in Colombia in 2005-2006. I met a lot of scouts in Cartagena, Santa Marta and Baranquilla. All of them said it would take 20-30 years before a pitcher from their country was going to reach the majors, because of the level of instruction and competition available there being so inferior. Edgar Renteria and his brother said the same thing, I worked as a volunteer at one of their camps...when I asked if they'd ever seen a pitcher who had the stuff to make it to the majors...at any of their youth camps there or in Miami. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2...l-bias/2101977/

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 22, 2013 -> 08:03 AM) Who exactly are they supposed to call up? Erik Johnson and Danks would also be on 3 day's rest. Spencer Arroyo, theoretically. Tony Pena, Jr., is the AAA starter aligned, but he threw 1 1/3 last night because of Castro only going 5 innings and getting bombed. You hate to start someone in this situation...when they're having to go up against another team's ace, they threw 80 pitches on Saturday, then you're taking them out of their normal routine and "comfort zone" as they just threw a bullpen session of 40 pitches and would have 2 days and not just a single day to bounce back from that. One shouldn't forget how many times this organization has bounced Santiago around...and then there was the game he was rushed into earlier in the year when Floyd went down that he struggled mightily in. Other than that game and Saturday against the Angels, he has been excellent the entire season, more or less. So you're sort of seeing the Sergio Santos Effect with him....almost every time he's out there, he's great...or he completely falls apart. Although, in fairness, he didn't take the loss, it was actually Nathan Jones on Saturday.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb Reinsdorf to be awarded 2013 SBJ/SBD Lifetime Achievement Award during a ceremony at the Sports Business Awards in New York on Wednesday night.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 21, 2013 -> 11:38 PM) Santiago is averaging 5+ innings and 98 pitches per start. Axelrod is averaging 5+ innings and 98 pitches per start. You were saying? Is that counting last season or just 2013?

Can't wait to see the finale to the Delpy/Ethan Hawk/Linklater franchise.... Final one, covering nearly twenty years of time, BEFORE MIDNIGHT. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/before_midnight_2013/ 22 reviews so far, only one negative. Reading some of the blurbs/synopses, it seems like it could be an excellent film and perfect cap-off to the trilogy.

Now you just JINXED Sale, too. LOL. There were many overreactions to the Sale situation last year, and mine was among the worst of those "freaking out" about the team's handling (or perceived mishandling, along with a lack of communication between Sale, Cooper, RV, KW and the agent) of the situation. That said, it's eerie how as much of an issue it was in 2012, NOBODY seems concerned at all this year.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ May 21, 2013 -> 10:40 PM) That's ridiculous. What part of he didn't pitch full time until 19 years old don't you understand? He only pitched 4 fulls seasons prior to being released, and he was very good during all 4 years. Did people think he can be this good this soon? No. Did people has expectations for him? Of course they did. I don't think anyone sees a 22 year old who just finished A ball as a major red flag. He was viewed as a guy with no potential as you are making it sound like. http://www.pinstripedbible.com/2012/9/11/3...is-just-another You also have to take into consideration the PED's red flag. Joel Sherman wrote about Quintana today (great timing, eh?) and the team’s decision to let him leave as a minor league free agent after last season… …the Yankees did not put Quintana on the 40-man roster, making him a free agent. GM Brian Cashman said they deliberated on the matter and, despite a dearth of quality lefties in the system, “We looked at him as a fringy prospect. We offered him a minor league contract to stay, but not a 40-man roster position. We didn’t feel he was ahead of other guys we gave spots to. It was a numbers game, but right now it does not look like a good decision.” Quintana’s agent hunted around for a 40-man roster spot and found a taker in Chicago. Quintana made nine starts in Double-A before coming up for good when John Danks hit the disabled list. He’s excelled at limiting walks (1.53 BB/9 and 4.5 BB%) and homers (0.51 HR/9) but he hasn’t racked up many strikeouts (5.09 K/9 and 15.0 K%) or ground balls (40.4%). Quintana uses his upper-80s fastball and mid-80s slider heavily but will also mix in the occasional upper-70s curveball and on the rarest of occasions, a mid-80s changeup. Sherman spoke to a scout who had a little more to offer… A scout for an NL team who saw two of his major league starts reported a good fastball that Quintana cuts and sinks, but worried there was no clear swing-and-miss pitch, and also that the southpaw had a bad pickoff move and was slow to the plate, making him susceptible to stolen bases. riveraveblues.com

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2013 -> 09:48 PM) Not if Santiago can't make it five innings or 100 pitches. Same argument goes for Quintana, if not moreso.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2013 -> 09:48 PM) Seriously? Johan? Come on man. If he ever learns to control the screwball, why not? Who are you going to compare him to, then? (Another reason is because Santana came out of relative obscurity, Rule V pick, etc. He wasn't on everybody's radar screen as a Top 50 prospect.) That's a BIG if. Sure. But he throws just as hard, if not harder. Johan's bread-and-butter pitch was the change-up, just like Buehrle's. IF IF IF he can get it into the strikezone 50-60% of the time instead of 10-25%, then it's going to be a major weapon. (Langston was saying during the Angels' broadcast that it had "crazy movement"). Remember, he's only been throwing it for 2 1/2 years now.